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News Story
1/22/2012
From the courts to the Capitol to the ballot, insurance magnate George Joseph and attorney Harvey Rosenfield, who wrote the 1988 initiative that regulated auto insurance, have been butting heads for a quarter century.
They assure me it's not personal.
There was nothing personal in 2009 when Consumer Watchdog, the Santa Monica advocacy group founded by Rosenfield, bought billboard space on...
News Release
1/19/2012
Brian Stedge
Santa Monica, CA – The billionaire insurance baron-backed ballot measure to surcharge millions of California drivers by 40% has qualified for the November 2012 ballot, according to the California Secretary of State. Mercury Insurance Chairman George Joseph, who has already contributed over $8 million to the ballot measure, will reprise the company’s previous effort to enact auto...
Video
12/21/2011
New Video: Insurance Billionaire George Joseph Is The Grinch;
Christmas Eve Attack of The 1% Exposed
(Santa Monica, CA) Consumer Watchdog Campaign has released a new video showing the 375th richest man in America, 90-year old insurance baron George Joseph, as the Grinch who stole Christmas.
The video points to the devious attack by the Chairman of Mercury Insurance on auto insurance customers...
Blog Post
11/15/2011
By Kent McInnis
Want a simple and personal way to spread the word about Mercury Insurance and their deceptive, anti-consumer campaign? See the sample letter below as the foundation of a message you can send via letter or email to your friends, family and neighbors:
Dear (Name),
The 1%’s poster child, Billionaire George Joseph - chairman of insurer Mercury General Corp. and tied as the 385th richest man in...
Blog Post
10/11/2011
By Jamie Court
What: Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Initiative Process. Candles will be blown out and cake will be shared with people participating in Occupy LA.
Who: Harvey Rosenfield, Consumer Watchdog Founder and Prop 103 Author; and Jamie Court, Consumer Watchdog President and Author of “The Progressive’s Guide to Raising Hell”
Where: South Steps of...
Blog Post
9/14/2011
By Judy Dugan & Brian Stedge
When a billionaire auto insurance executive personally sponsors a statewide ballot initiative to delete regulations on his industry, would we Consumer Watchdogs be right to smell a rat? Yeah, we thought so. That’s why Mercury Insurance Chairman George Joseph is not only putting millions of dollars into getting people to sign his ballot petition, he’s also throwing a brigade of quick...
News Release
1/19/2012
Brian Stedge
Santa Monica, CA – The billionaire insurance baron-backed ballot measure to surcharge millions of California drivers by 40% has qualified for the November 2012 ballot, according to the California Secretary of State. Mercury Insurance Chairman George Joseph, who has already contributed over $8 million to the ballot measure, will reprise the company’s previous effort to enact auto...
News Release
12/21/2011
By Brian Stedge & Doug Heller
Santa Monica, CA -- Mercury Insurance is seeking permission to raise auto insurance rates by $89 million. At the same time, the company’s Chairman George Joseph is spending $8 million on a 2012 ballot initiative that insurance billionaire claims will give “discounts” to some drivers. The proposed initiative is nearly identical to Mercury’s failed 2010 measure,...
News Release
12/21/2011
Brian Stedge & Doug Heller
Santa Monica, CA -- Mercury Insurance Chairman George Joseph contributed $1 million to the California Republican Party to fund a ballot initiative that would repeal the new State Senate district lines drawn by an independent commission earlier this year. Today, the California Supreme Court rejected Republican efforts to toss out the commission's redistricting plan. Joseph has...
News Story
1/22/2012
From the courts to the Capitol to the ballot, insurance magnate George Joseph and attorney Harvey Rosenfield, who wrote the 1988 initiative that regulated auto insurance, have been butting heads for a quarter century.
They assure me it's not personal.
There was nothing personal in 2009 when Consumer Watchdog, the Santa Monica advocacy group founded by Rosenfield, bought billboard space on...
News Story
12/20/2011
SACRAMENTO, CA -- California's initiative process was intended to give people a way to arm themselves against corruption, whether it was from lawmakers in the Capitol or the special interests that controlled them.
But in the 100 years since former Gov. Hiram Johnson rallied against the corrupt politics that permeated state government, corporations and wealthy individuals have adapted to...
News Story
10/10/2011
SACRAMENTO - If Hiram Johnson, the California governor who campaigned in 1910 vowing to bring the initiative process to state voters and then delivered on that promise a year later, were alive today, he would not be surprised by the criticisms leveled against the state's now century-old process of direct democracy.
Back in the day, he had heard them all before.
'The objections you hear...
Video
12/21/2011
New Video: Insurance Billionaire George Joseph Is The Grinch;
Christmas Eve Attack of The 1% Exposed
(Santa Monica, CA) Consumer Watchdog Campaign has released a new video showing the 375th richest man in America, 90-year old insurance baron George Joseph, as the Grinch who stole Christmas.
The video points to the devious attack by the Chairman of Mercury Insurance on auto insurance customers...
Video
12/20/2011
Consumer Watchdog's Doug Heller discusses why Mercury insurance is trying to get an extra $89 million out of their California policy holders.
Video
8/8/2011
Billionaire George Joseph, chairman of insurer Mercury General Corp. and tied as the 375th richest man in America, has launched a ballot initiative claiming to offer drivers a discount. What his ballot initiative really does is surcharge those who didn't have insurance because they had not been driving or are in the growing ranks of the long-term unemployed. They would have to...
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